Novell Storage Manager

Track and Locate Moved Data

A constant challenge among network administrators is assuring the availability of network storage disk space. This oftentimes means the movement of older data from more expensive primary storage devices to less-expensive secondary or tertiary backup storage devices. Over the lifetime of a network-stored file, it can reside in many different physical locations.

But what happens when someone needs to retrieve a particular file that has been moved a number of times to various storage locations? Unless a network administrator has been documenting each move&8212;a very unlikely practice&8212;the needed document could be very time consuming and costly to find.

Novell Storage Manager 2.5 has extended the scope of its cataloging to include time-based data recording. This means that whenever an administrator moves data managed by Novell Storage Manager 2.5, the managed data path is recorded and maintained in the catalog.

With Novell Storage Manager's ability to create auxiliary storage directories per object (e.g. user), individual user directories can be created for specific purposes. For example, in addition to a home directory, a directory might be created for terminal services data and another one or application data.

To locate a moved file, the administrator can then search the catalog by purpose (user's home directory, user's terminal services data directory, user's application data directory, etc.) locate it and recover it.

The catalog maintains rights, quota and other attributes of managed storage. That means that when a user's home or collaborative storage directory is restored, Novell Storage Manager 2.5 can be used to restore the original quota, trustee assignments, etc. automatically-a task that backup software by itself generally cannot do.

Novell Storage Manager's enhanced cataloging tracks where files are moved so that if they ever need to be located and restored, an administrator can do so quickly.